Celebrity builders

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Karl Lagerfeld.

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Michael Schumacher.

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Giorgio Armani.

Celebrity-endorsed buildings are all the rage in Dubai with international showbiz and sporting icons lending their names to developments. But what happens when the celebrity falls from grace? Soren Billing reports on the dilemma facing the brand builders.

When donald trump launched his own brand of cologne, it flopped so badly even US discount chain Marshalls put it on sale.

One blogger declared it the end of his comeback.

"I stumbled upon Donald Trump's much-hyped cologne ‘Trump: The Fragrance'" he wrote. "It was on clearance at Marshalls: $8 a bottle, way, way below its suggested retail price of $48."

But Trump's career is alive and well, as illustrated by the 62-storey Trump International Hotel & Tower being built on The Palm Jumeirah.

The cologne was just a case of the wrong celebrity endorsing the wrong type of product.

The $600m Trump tower, which includes a five-star hotel, is one of a slew of celebrity-endorsed developments to appear in Dubai's increasingly crowded real estate market. Other names include Brad Pitt, Tiger Woods, and Donatella Versace.

"Companies are looking for a way to differentiate themselves, and I think that's becoming more challenging," says Michael Hughes, executive director of strategy at The Brand Union Middle East.

Hughes' branding agency worked with Tatweer on The Tiger Woods, a luxury golf community that includes Al Ruwaya, a golf course designed by Woods himself.

The development is scheduled for completion in late 2009 and covers an area of 25.3 million sq ft at Dubailand, the vast tourism and leisure project.

Part of the company's job was to stretch the Tiger Woods brand from just the golf course to include the surrounding properties, which comprise 300 luxury villas and 20 exclusive mansions.

"We sought to capture the essence of Tiger Woods as a person," Hughes says.

The brand needed to reflect the prestigious and exclusive image the resort community wanted to evoke, with starting prices for the villas at $10m.

Along with using his name in the community development, the company wanted to use the values and principles of Woods himself.

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